Guessing Plotlines of Literary Classics

     Hi guys, It's Shanna again. While wracking my brain for ideas on this blog post, I realized I haven't read many quote-on-quote 'classic novels.'  I could have just written this on my current literary adventure, but the thought of these unread books stuck with me. So, instead of simply diving into them blindly, I thought it would be fun to take a different approach. I'm going to try my hand at guessing the plot lines of some of these literary classics based solely on their titles, covers, and the vague impressions I've gathered over the years. It's like a literary guessing game, and I'm excited to see how close—or hilariously far off—I am with my predictions. Here, I take 'judging a book by it's cover' very literally. Join me on this journey as I embark on a ‘whimsical’ exploration of some of the best-known literary classics—and stick until the end to hear my A Midsummer Night’s Dream prediction, which you’ll just have to wait and see till our in-class reading to see how spot on the money I was.

    

   Starting off strong, we have Moby Dick. Embarrassingly, I have no prior knowledge of anything this book covers aside from it including a whale. Using my "context clues" (as in the cover), I see it involves a grand ship and a possibly fleeting lifeboat. I believe Moby Dick is the whale, and I'm thinking the whale took the boat down with it or something. Possibly a social commentary? I feel like the humans in this story may be trying to capture the whale or shoot it down. In favor of the whale, I hope I'm wrong.

    So, I'm thinking this book is about a conformist society that outcasts those unlike them. From what I've heard about the movie, there's a group of edgy looking guys and I'm guessing they're our nonconformists, possibly free souls living in an 'uptight world.' Running from school, controlling parents, maybe running from an unwanted future? Possibly. I kind of get dystopian vibes from this book and might just have to actually read it sometime. 

    To me, the title suggests that there is a benefit or advantage to being the person that sits back and observes at a function, rather than being the one paraded, celebrated, and known as the 'life of the party'. I think that sounds like a cool concept and makes me think this book delves into the values of our society and disects the reasons as to why we think the way we do, maybe by giving insight into the modern teen's brain and the inner workings of their social webs and hierarchy.

    As a horror classic, I'm thinking this may have paved the way for many of the haunted house tropes that succeded it. I think we explore an abandoned mansion in this story years after its most recent vacancy. I'm thinking someone died here, either an elderly man or woman, or possibly even a whole family. In the end, I believe that all of our main characters die trying to uncover the truth that's held in the mansion's walls, and we end on a cliffhanger wondering if the characters went mad or succumbed to possession. 

    I believe that in Mr. Mitchell's class, we were told that this book involves nymths or fairies, hinting me in the fantastical direction of storytelling. I'm thinking that this book will involve a dreamy, storybook-like world with mythical creatures and possibly a romance. Shakespeare likes to involve tragedies, so the plotline could involve the main character conflicting reality with his dream, wonderous world.